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In his senior Nations Cup debut, Wilton Porter (Wellington, Fla.) and his mount Caletto Cabana, a 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding owned by Sleepy P Ranch LLC, delivered a double-clear performance to lead the U.S. team of Beezie Madden (Cazenovia, N.Y.), Adrienne Sternlicht (Greenwich, Conn.), and McLain Ward (Brewster, N.Y.) to an eight-fault finish following the first two rounds of competition. With Ireland also finishing on eight faults, the FEI Jumping Nations Cup CSIO4* Wellington moved into a third, jump-off round for only the second time in the 18-year history of the class.

Representing Ireland in the jump-off were Daniel Coyle and Farona, owned by Ariel Grange, and when they finished on 12 faults, they left the door open for the U.S. team’s selected jump-off pair, Ward and Contagious, a 10-year-old German Sport Horse gelding owned by Beechwood Stables LLC. With a foot-perfect performance from Ward and Contagious, the U.S. team secured the gold, while Ireland took silver, and Canada finished in the bronze medal position with 13 faults.

“This is what we were planning!” said Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland of the team’s gold medal performance. “We’ve had two back-to-back Nations Cups, and [rider selection] is largely off the ranking lists. One of the prerequisites for these two teams was that we didn’t want to use the same horse. Beezie and McLain did both Nations Cups but on different horses. We also try to get the young riders experience that they haven’t had before. Wilton with his double clean in his debut – we’re going to bring him along as a good luck charm! That’s a pretty good way to start things off. It was a good day!”

“It was kind of a neat team because you had two younger riders, and Beezie and I as veterans with two younger horses and horses for the future,” added Ward. “I think both of the horses really rose to the occasion today. When Robert said [there was] the jump-off, I actually jumped at the opportunity because I felt like [Contagious] was jumping better both rounds. He jumped his best round the third round, and I’m excited for all of his owners. He’s going to have a great future, this horse.”

In the first round of competition, Ward and Porter kicked things off with consecutive clear rounds. With nine faults from Sternlicht and Toulago, a 14-year-old Oldenburg gelding owned by Starlight Farms 1, LLC, and four faults from Beezie Madden and Chic Hin D Hyrencourt, an 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding owned by Abigail Wexner, the U.S. team finished the opening round on only four faults to sit tied with Ireland and Canada going into round two.

Ward opened the second round with just four faults, followed up by a second clear round from Porter.

“I’m very excited to say the least,” said Porter following his successful senior debut. “I'm honored to have been able to ride with three riders who have gold medals in senior championships. That’s a pretty big honor for me, so I definitely felt like the rookie coming into it, but I have a great horse. He gave me a lot of confidence to get the job done tonight.”

Sternlicht returned next in the second round to finish on four faults after only a step in the open water aboard Toulago, and Madden came next to anchor the team with the clear round that guaranteed the jump-off for the team’s ultimate victory.